Houston News

Texas Professor Shows Cracks In GPS Systems

A University Of Texas professor is raising concerns over a possible terror attack by showing how vulnerable GPS systems are. That experiment shows that we have to be vigilant here in the city of Houston.

Professor Todd Humphreys took control of a yacht in the Mediterranean Sea, drove it wherever he wanted and fooled the navigation system into thinking it was on course. Jeff Addicott of the Center for Terrorism Law at St. Mary’s University said he's glad Humphreys conducted this experiment.

“It raises awareness. This could happen,” Addicott told KTRH.

Addicott says Houston has to be on alert because the Port of Houston could be vulnerable.

“That’s the great danger. That’s the soft underbelly of the next terror attack. These systems control vast areas of our infrastructure,” Addicott explained.

Addicott says this is a wakeup call for everyone trying to keep you safe.

“People get lazy. They don’t think about these things. It’s good that this professor has shown that this can be done,” Addicott stated.

Addicott also said that it might not be an actual terrorist that winds up pulling this sort of attack off because they don’t have the technology. It might be something completely different.

“It’s more likely that you would have these threats emanate from a disgruntled employee,” Addicott said.

This is not the first time Humphreys has done something like this. He has taken over unmanned drones before and has conducted similar experiments. KTRH reached out to Humphrey, but he would not talk to us about his latest experiment.